h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

oh, yes. Not unlike when you stick a fork in a toaster. See, maths IS dangerous.

Entry: Complex Numbers - an Introduction - A25082372
Author: Icy North - U225620

Live on the edge! Read about complex numbers. Go on, DARE YOU.

I used to play a game called 'Syndicate', where one of my favourite weapons was a 'Gauss gun' - a marvel of finesse and subtlety

Off-topic I know, but why don't they have computer games where the winner is the one who negotiates a peaceful settlement?

Because they like realistic games?

Because it's too hard. Like Monopoly. Noone can play that 'nicely' either.

Computer game. Peaceful settlement.

Nope, can't see the connection

Once you've got rid of everybody else, it becomes peaceful, doesn't it?

Maybe computers would have trouble 'finding out' whether an apparently peaceful situation is satisfactory or not? It's easier to just count if you have more money or more players than the others in the end.

Then again, it's 2007 now, not 1987

Well if peace is what you wanted, Syndicate let you wander around with the Persuadatron and brainwash civilians, policeman and enemy agents alike into fighting for your cause... got very peaceful after that...


...Damn that was a fun game - if you accidentally persuaded someone you were meant to assassinate, the game engine wouldn't let you target on them, and so you always had to make sure you had a nice collateral damage weapon like the flame thrower or rocket launcher with you, so you could fry them accidentally, whereby they would flail around burning for awhile, then die. Those were the days eh?


Still, complex numbers entry looks good - studied them a bit at uni during my chemistry degree, was never very comfortable with them, but the entry is nice and clear, so nice one

vp

I remember massive civilian persuading, and walking around in streets covered with various weapons. I ended up with a huge crowd of armed people It was very difficult to stop a vehicle after that, they tended to explode after one shot.

Are we back on the computer games, TB, or was this a recent holiday in Manchester?

This is good, Icy.

I don't know why you insist on putting i in bold every time. I've always seen it as just a normal i.

You should avoid putting a footnote on a number or on an algebraic expression, as it looks like a power. For example, footnote 3 is on (1 - i), which looks like (1 - i) to the power of 3.

You've presented complex numbers as if they were just a way of solving real number problems with real solutions. But you've glossed over their use as a way of describing two-dimensional spaces, which leads to their use in electrical engineering, control theory and quantum mechanics. Perhaps you could just mention this?

G

Thanks Gnomon.

I tried it with unformatted i's and they looked a little indistinct, as well as looking odd when used on their own in other sentences. I then tried italics before settling on bold, which I prefer a lot. I know it's not conventional, but this entry is aimed at the non-mathematician, and I wanted the concept and notation to be as clear as possible.

I've moved that confusing footnote.

I've changed the final sentence and mentioned the applications you suggested - let me know if this is OK. I'd rather not expand them any further for this entry.

Icy

I'm off on my holidays soon, but in case someone wants to pick this while I'm away, it's ready as far as I'm concerned.

I've followed this thread for ages and finally we're talking about something I understand! What was a Gauss Gun anyway? Personally, I favoured the flamethrower...

But it was so annoying in the wind! For precision missions, I liked the mini-gun or, later, the laser

Ah yes but I really just wanted to blow cars up. And set fire to innocent civillians.

Numbers on it can also be described in terms of their distance from the origin (the 'size' or 'modulus' of the number) and the angle of the line joining the number to the origin, as measured anticlockwise from the real axisThis is known as 'polar representation'..

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Numbers on it can also be described using 'polar representation', which makes use of their distance from the origin (the 'size' or 'modulus' of the number) and the angle of the line joining the number to the origin, as measured anticlockwise from the real axis (this is known as the 'argument').

Otherwise this looks pretty good to me

Alex

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